Pagan Origins
The origin of Easter however reveal that it flows directly from ancient Paganism. Shortly after the flood, Nimrod, son of Cush, grandson of Ham and Noah's great grandson, began to build the kingdom of Babylon. The civilization he started is known by historians as that of the "Chaldeans". Nimrod was elevated to god status by men and was worshipped as a chief deity. Semiramis was the wife of Nimrod. Nimrod was ruler of Babylon when he tried to build a tower to heaven. After Nimrods death his wife claims he did not die but was ascended into heaven and was now the sun god. His widow, Semiramis (mother of Tammuz), was called the "queen of heaven". Various cultures continued the idolatry of these original pagans under different names.
- Aphrodite, named Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) after the two places which claimed her birth;
- Ashtoreth from ancient Israel;
- Astarte, wife of the sun god Baal, from ancient Greece (Canaanites, Phoenicians);
- Beltis, wife of the god Baal, from ancient Babylonia;
- Demeter from Mycenae;
- Hathor or Isis from ancient Egypt;
- Ishtar or Inanna/Astarte from Assyria (Sumerians);
- Kali from India;
- Ostara, a Norse Goddess of fertility;
- Freya, Scandinavian version;
- Diana of the Ephesians;
- Mary;
- Venus.
The worship of this goddess involved a cult fertility practise. She is the goddess of fertility, love, sex and war.
The name "Easter," which is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian goddess Ishtar, comes to us from old Teutonic mythology where it is known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Austron and Ausos. Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre."
"The festival, of which we read in Church History, under the name of Easter, in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish (and Protestant) Church, and at that time was not known by any such name as Easter. It was called Pascha, or the Passover, and...was very early observed by many professing Christians... That festival agreed originally with the time of the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified... That festival was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent" (The Two Babylons, p. 104 by Alexander Hislop)
Easter Eggs
According to the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37 AD - 100 AD), Nimrod was punished for his rebellion by Shem, one of the sons of Noah. He cut Nimrod's body into many pieces and sent it to the surrounding people as a warning against idolatry. Nimrod's wife Semiramis, the Queen of Babylon, collected all the parts of his body except for his penis. After Nimrods death his wife claims he did not die but was ascended into heaven and was now the sun god. She, now being the wife of the sun had to make herself a goddess. She told everyone that she had ascended in to the heavens and had came back down in a giant egg and landed in the Euphrates River. She then proceeded to turn a bird into an egg laying rabbit. She proclaimed herself as the queen of heaven. Her egg became known as Ishtar's egg, or as we call it today "Easter egg".
40 Days of Weeping: Lent & Ash Wednesday
After Nimrods death, Semiramis becomes pregnant, she says by the rays of the sun. Her son was born on December 25. His name was Tammuz (Horus, Apollo, Sol, Krishna, Hercules, Mithra, Cupid and finally Jesus). He automatically became a god due to his conception being through the rays of the sun. His mother became known as the mother of god and mother child worship begins. Tammuz and his mother become not only mother and son but husband and wife. They rule the kingdom of Babylon together as gods. Tammuz was killed in a hunting accident by a wild boar (a pig). He was 40 years old. His wife mother tells everyone they are to mourn for him 40 days prior to the anniversary of his death. They are to give up meat during this time. It was one day for every year he lived. Now this holiday is called lent and done in the name of Jesus. And is said to be done in remembrance of his 40 days he was in the wilderness. This forty days of fasting from something would begin on what is called “Ash Wednesday” in the Catholic Church and many protestant Churchs with the Cross of Tammuz being writtin in ash on the forehead of the “faithful”. The priest would take ashes and place a “mark” on our foreheads of a cross as he would recite a declaration about how we were “created from ashes and to ashes we shall return.”